Safety-catch for elevator cars and counterweights.



No. 763,976- PATENTED JULY 5, 1904. H. F. GURNEY.

SAFETY CATCH FOR ELEVATOR CARS AND GOUNTERWEIGHTS.

APPLIOATION FILED JUNE 29. 1903.

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No. 763,976. PATENTED JULY 5. 1904.

. H. P. GURNEY.

SAFETY CATCH FOR ELEVATOR CARS AND GOUNTERWEIGHTS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 29. 1903.

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PATENTED JULY 5, 1904.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 29. 1903.

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N0 MODEL.

UMM Z; Z; k fi [rd 6.6 W! H w "Hil i l 2 UNITED STATES Patented July 5, 1904.

PATENT ()EEICE.

HOWARD F. GURNEY, OF JERSEY CITY, NEIV JERSEY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 763,976, dated July 5, 1904.

Application filed June 29, 1903. Serial No. 163,550. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HOWARD F. GURNEY, of Jersey City, New Jersey, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Safety- Catches for Elevator Cars and Counterweights, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to devices which are designed for preventing the uncontrolled descent or falling of cars or lifts and the counterweights or counterbalances usually associated therewith.

It sometimes happens that one or the other of the vertically-moving elements of an elevator system that is, the car or counterweight-overruns the proper and predetermined upper limit of its travel, despite the fact that means in the nature of safety devices are and have been used to prevent such occurrences. Such overrunning, whether due to the failure of such devices to work or whatever the cause by which it is occasioned, is attended with serious and oftentimes fatal results, since if the car or counterweight is forcibly driven upward against the overhead rigging the cable or cable connections are liable to break or the parts become twisted and bent from their proper shapes. The counter-. weight (or some of the individual weights comprised therein) or car being thereby freed from the hoisting apparatus falls to the bottom of the well. This is especially true of the counterweight and even ofthe car, since the safety-clutch usually provided onthe latter sometimes fails to stop it in its descent.

The present improvements are designed more especially to provide means in the nature of a catch or stop automatically brought into action by the overrunning of the car or counterweight and operative to prevent the descent of either of these bodies should they be broken loose from all restraining connections.

The accompanying drawings set forth an embodiment of my present invention and illustrate various forms which such embodiment may assume.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view illustrating a counterweight and its guides, the former being assumed to be in a position at or adjacent to the upper limit of its travel and in the act of setting a catch to prevent the dropping of the counterweight.

-A shield or guard is also indicated, the purpose of which will be adverted to later. Fig. 2 is a similar view, upon a somewhat larger scale, showing the cooperative devices and the mounting of the catch. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section through the guide-barrel of the bolt constituting the catch, the set position of the bolt being indicated in dotted lines. Fig. 4 represents amodified construction of the catch mechanism. Fig. 5 is a detail perspective indicating a fixture which may be attached to the counterweight-frame for cooperating with the set-catch. Fig. 6 is an elevational view illustrating still another form of catch mechanism, which in this instanceembodies a springthrown latch-restrained bolt, the tripping of the holding-latch of which by the ascending counterweight permits the setting of the bolt by its spring. Fig. 7 is a view from the right of Fig. 6. Figs. 8 and 9 are perspective and sectional views, respectively, of different details. Fig. 10 illustrates the application of the present invention to a car or lift.

Similar characters of reference designate corresponding parts in all figures.

The ascent of the vertically-movable element (car or counterweight) of an elevator system above the proper and predetermined limit of its upward travel experience has demonstrated is ofttimes productive of disastrous results. If the forcibly-raised car or weight continues its upward movement, it is eventually either drawn out of its guides or by heing drawn against the beams, sheaves, or other parts of the overhead rigging the cables or connections are parted, and the car or counterweight being thereby released falls to the bottom of the shaft, generally with serious results. It is a common practice at the present day to secure the cables to the counterweight or counterweight-frame by thimbles filled in with metal around the enlarged ends of the cables, and under the circumstances de' scribed the cables have been found to pull out from these thimbles. In the case of a released car,l1owever,tl1e safety devices usually mounted thereon are supposed to catch the car and prevent its falling any comparatively great distance. Sometimes such devices do not fulfil their intended function, and the car then becomes a source of danger and destruction in common with the counterweight, with which are ordinarily used no devices adapted with certainty and in any event to hold the counterweight suspended should the latter part or break away from all restraining-cables. It is found, moreover, that this overrunning of the counterweight sometimes causes a spreading of its guides or a tilting of the counterweightframe, resulting in the dislodgment of the individual weights comprised therein and permitting them to crash downward onto the car below.

The present in'iprovements provide means for holding up the overrunning and released member, be it either the car or the counterweight, until the same shall have received the proper attention from the person in charge. This result is, moreover,effected automatically by the action of the overrunning car,&c. ,itself, as will appear.

In carrying the present improvements into practice a catch, bolt, or other device is located at either one or both sides of the well or shaft at the top thereof. Such device in its normal position is situated to one side of the path traversed by the car, counterweight, or fixtures thereof; but when such element reaches its proper predetermined limit of upward travel and continues its movement onward it operates to cause the shifting of the device across the path which it would take in falling. Should thereafter the connections be broken, the element will be sustained in its elevated position. Obviously such catch, or device in the nature of a catch, or bolt may be of various forms and constructions and mounted in various ways and yet come within the scope and spirit of the invention. A few of such are disclosed in the drawings, and their detail description will now be entered upon.

Referring at the outset to the construction disclosed in Figs. 1 to 3, inclusive, the usual vertical counterweight-guides are indicated, the same being designated by 2 2, and between which guides travels the counterweight 3. This latter of course varies in size, construction, and weight, depending upon the various factors involved. In the specific construction illustrated, 4C4 designate upper and lower plates, forming with the connecting-bolts 5 the counterweight-frame, in which the individual weights 6 are held, these latter being oftentimes notched to receive the bolts. The counterweight suspension-cables are designated by 4. A catch in the nature of a sliding bolt 7 is mounted on a suitable housing or bracket-like support 8, which is here firmly attached to one of the guides 2, it being understood, of course,-that aduplicate construe tion may be mounted adjacent to the other side of the counterweight. This bolt here works in a barrel 9, in which is located a spring 10, bearing against a collar 11 on the bolt and under a sufficient tension only to hold the bolt in its withdrawn position against accidental shocks and jars. The inner end of the bolt is alined with an opening 12, which in this instance is formed in the main web of the guide, while its outer end is provided with a head 13, against which is adapted to press the contact end 14 of an arm 15, extending from a shaft 16, mounted in bearings rigid with the support 8. To this shaft is also secured an arm 17, whose outer end carries a roller 18, extending across the path of the beveled edge of a cam-plate actuator 19, moving with the aforesaid counterweight. The roller and the cam-plate are so related that no cooperation between the two occurs as long as the upward movement of the counterweight does not extend beyond the proper upper limit of its travel. \Nhen, however, such travel reaches beyond this point, the actuator impinging against the roller forces the arm 15 inward, thereby thrusting the end of the bolt under the counterweight, and should thereafter the counterweight break loose from its hoisting connections it will merely drop down on the bolt or bolts and be held in such position until attention is given to it. A further feature is also illustrated in Fig. 1, consisting of a guard or shield 20, fixed in place in front of the position occupied by the counterweight when at the upper end of its travel. It is sufficiently close to the counterweight to prevent, in conjunction with the setcatch, any weight from dropping downward should the latter become dislodged from its place on the frame. Of course the proportion and sizes of all parts in this, as in all other constructions, will be adequate to resist all forces to which they are subjected in performing their intended functions.

In Figs. 4 and 5 the illustrated construction comprises a projecting actuator, stud, or pin 21, moving with the counterweight and which at the proper point in the travel of the latter impinges against an arm 29., pivotally mounted on afixed support 23. As this latter swings upward a tension is applied through a spring 24 to force the outer end of an arm 25 inward, there being jointed to this arm a bolt 26, mounted in a housing or support 27, rigidly fixed in position. The inner end of the bolt is thus forcibly pressed against the face of a laterally-extending plate 28, moving with the counterweight, and when the lower edge of this plate passes the bolt the latter will fly inward and operate to prevent the descent of the weight, as in the former construction.

In the mechanism of Figs. 6 to 99, inclusive, a spring-thrown bolt is illustrated, the retaining-latch of which is tripped and the boltspring permitted to set the bolt by the overrunning element. In these figures the counterweight and guide are designated as before, while the bolt 29, mounted in a housing 30, is slidable through a barrel 31, between the head of which and a collar 32 on the bolt is interposed a spring 33, operating to throw the bolt when released from its withdrawn position to its counterweight-intercepting position. The outer end of the latch-arm 34 is here bifurcated (see Fig. 8) and when in the position indicated in Fig. 6 prevents the inward movement of the bolt by reason of its interposition in the path of the head 35 of the bolt. Rigid with the said latch-arm is an arm 36, whose suitably-formed free end 37 intersects the line of movement of an actuator-roller 38, moving with the counterweight. As the latter moves upward beyond its upper limit of safe travel the roller impinging against the end 37 withdraws the latch-arm from the head.

35, and eventually the bolt is shot forward under the counterweight.

In Fig. 10 the application of the mechanism to an elevator car or lift 39 is illustrated.

The mode of operation will be readily understood from the foregoing description. Suffice it to say that 40 designates the sliding bolt or catch, and 41 the actuator moving with the car.

But a single guard or shield for the counterweight is shown, between which and the wall the counterweight runs, since this is the ordinary construction where the inner face of the weight is close to the wall-surface. When,

however, the conditions are such that the coun-' shiftable device extending into the path of said actuator and operatively connecting with saidsliding bolt.

2. A safety device for preventing the falling of the vertically-movable element of an elevator system, the same comprising, in combination, an actuator moving with said element, a sliding bolt normally out of the path of said element, and a shiftable device extending into the path of said actuator and operatively connecting with said sliding bolt.

3. An elevatorcounterweight provided tending across the path of said actuator and adapted to be actuated thereby when the actuator reaches a predetermined point, and a catch mechanism, the catch of which is set in i its counterweight holding position by the shifting of said device.

4. An elevator counterweight provided with an actuator, combined with a shiftable device mounted in the elevator-well'adjacent to the line of travel of the counterweight, extending across the path of said actuator and adapted to be actuated thereby when the actuator reaches aprede'termined point, a catch mechanism, the catch of which is set in its counterweight-holding position by the shifting of said device, and a guard fixed in position in the elevator-wellto cooperate with the set-catch of the catch mechanism and prevent the catch-held guide-freed counterweight from falling.

5. An elevator counterweight provided with an actuator, combined with a sliding bolt normally out of the path of the counterweight, a shiftable device mounted in the elevatorwell adjacent to the line of travel of the counterweight, extending across the path of said relation with said bolt, and a guard fixed in? position in the elevator-well to cooperate with the projected bolt and prevent the bolt-held guide-freed counterweight from falling.

6. An elevator counterweight provided with an actuator, combined with a catch mechanism the catch of which is adapted to be set in its counterweight-holding position by said actuator when the latter reaches a predetermined position.

7. An elevatorcounterweight provided with an actuator, combined with a catch mech anism the catch of which is adapted to be set in its counterweight-holding position by said actuator when the latter reaches a predetermined position, and a guard fixedin position in the elevator-well to cooperate with the setcatch of the catch mechanism and prevent the catch held guide-freed counterweight from falling. v

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed witnesses.

Witnesses W. L. HASTEDT, J. H. VAN ALs'rYNE my name in the presence of two subscribing HOWARD F; GURNEYQ l 

